EUROPEAN INLAND FISHERIES ADVISORY COMMISSION EIFAC Twentieth Session West Europe

Back to Analysis of European Catch

Total off-take from the inland waters of Western Europe showed a slow increase over the whole period.

Total production from inland waters - Western Europe
Country	1986	Country	1996
Finland	58994	France	68070
Italy	49337	Italy	60918
Germany	47934	Germany	60582
France	41355	Finland	51388
Spain	27504	Spain	36910
Denmark	21102	Denmark	33822
UK	13720	Greece	19719
Greece	10242	UK	18879
Netherlands	4770	Netherlands	6407
Austria	4750	Sweden	5005
Switzerland	4657	Ireland	4966
Sweden	3438	Austria	4108
Portugal	1755	Switzerland	3002
Belgium	1028	Iceland	1462
Iceland	696	Portugal	1427
Norway	620	Belgium	1357
Ireland	557	Norway	338
Total	292459	Total	378360

There has been some change in order among the major producers of freshwater fish with a decline in Finnish production and a marked rise in that of France and Italy.

Capture fisheries, however, have declined fairly steadily throughout the period although following a degree of stabilization between 1989 and 1994 output rose to 125,500 t in 1996.

Capture fishery production from inland waters � Western Europe
Country	1986	Country	1996
Finland	55221	Finland	48344
Italy	17737	Germany	23149
Spain	10700	Greece	16483
Germany	8351	Spain	9490
Greece	8302	Italy	8976
Switzerland	4386	France	4540
Netherlands	4170	Ireland	3806
France	3533	Netherlands	2157
Sweden	2237	UK	2068
UK	2097	Switzerland	1841
Austria	640	Sweden	1810
Iceland	546	Austria	1155
Belgium	498	Iceland	608
Denmark	433	Belgium	511
Norway	370	Norway	338
Ireland	87	Denmark	196
Total	119308	Total	125472

There have been particularly drastic declines in catch in some countries such as Italy and Switzerland and a significant rise in reported catch from Germany and Greece in 1996. In the case of Germany this abrupt rise was due to inclusion of recreational fisheries in the production total since 1995 (page 11). Some countries with a known commercial catch do not report this, such as France with a known catch of about 2,000 t/y. There is no doubt that the figures lead to an underestimate of actual production as much of the anglers� catch is unreported. In some countries recreational fisheries are catch-and-return and do not contribute to overall off-take, nevertheless an estimated 113,000 t are caught for domestic consumption by sport fishermen.

Aquaculture productin in Western Europe continued to rise over the whole period and, despite signs of slowing between 1989 and 1993, the rise in the figures for 1996 attest to the continuing health of this sector.

Aquaculture production from inland waters � Western Europe
Country	1986	Country	1996
Germany	39583	France	63530
France	37822	Italy	51942
Italy	31600	Germany	37433
Denmark	20669	Denmark	33626
Spain	16804	Spain	27420
UK	11623	UK	16811
Austria	4110	Netherlands	4250
Finland	3773	Greece	3236
Greece	1940	Sweden	3195
Portugal	1755	Finland	3044
Sweden	1201	Austria	2953
Netherlands	600	Portugal	1427
Belgium	530	Switzerland	1161
Ireland	470	Ireland	1160
Switzerland	271	Iceland	854
Norway	250	Belgium	846
Iceland	150
Total	173151	Total	252888

Major increases in production come from France, Italy, Denmark and Spain. Other countries remained static or with only slight growth.

A detailed breakdown by country of total, capture and culture fisheries for the period is set out on the following sheet.

Total production from inland waters - Western Europe
Country	1984	1985	1986	1987	1988	1989	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996
Austria	4700	4800	4750	4600	5100	5000	4800	4505	4105	4605	4548	4458	4108
Belgium	310	934	1028	1058	1174	1249	1186	1357	1357	1357	1357	1357	1357
Denmark	21217	22020	21102	23254	23948	26795	35838	36529	37125	35716	36368	37652	33822
Finland	70168	69458	58994	58283	52792	54064	54740	53181	54643	55350	51258	51858	51388
France	28185	32323	41355	41890	44859	44025	50155	51510	56460	61175	63435	64029	68070
Germany	44660	47439	47934	47936	50680	55374	54271	49991	48205	49301	48478	62057	60582
Greece	10055	8626	10242	10292	9992	9797	10459	9954	11753	13260	16168	19889	19719
Iceland	440	479	696	653	799	724	789	1063	1285	1473	1272	1599	1462
Ireland	670	616	557	821	3733	7054	3641	3783	3956	3835	4458	4764	4966
Italy	49953	47119	49337	55203	57493	60684	56450	55398	54010	54410	58106	60483	60918
Netherlands	4026	4109	4770	5679	6001	4721	3837	4809	3588	3986	4843	6861	6407
Norway	556	657	620	432	280	576	483	541	580	435	432	413	338
Portugal	760	860	1755	2357	1851	979	2267	2260	1309	1436	2221	983	1427
Spain	24204	26454	27504	29387	30066	31199	29521	29551	30041	31239	31649	33913	36910
Sweden	3366	2927	3438	3787	5229	5523	5923	5517	5556	5203	5206	5053	5005
Switzerland	4113	4564	4657	4523	4227	4483	4228	4829	3945	2957	2716	2749	3002
UK	13917	13565	13720	15245	16052	20093	16584	16473	17287	16041	18560	18763	18879
Total	281300	286950	292459	305400	314276	332340	335172	331251	335205	341779	351075	376881	378360

Aquaculture production from inland waters - Western Europe
Country	1984	1985	1986	1987	1988	1989	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996
Austria	4000	4100	4110	4000	4500	4450	4250	3955	3605	4205	4148	4058	2953
Belgium	310	440	530	600	700	735	675	846	846	846	846	846	846
Denmark	20753	21658	20669	22851	23559	26359	35446	36140	36466	35379	36106	37388	33626
Finland	4112	3427	3773	3894	3492	5091	5369	4070	3236	3828	3363	3422	3044
France	26185	29273	37822	39118	41164	41005	46655	47510	52110	56775	58985	59529	63530
Germany	37903	39665	39583	40092	41442	47392	43540	40950	39435	38464	37668	39168	37433
Greece	2300	2110	1940	2222	2639	2447	2292	2118	2746	2484	2875	2304	3236
Iceland	30	12	150	153	156	197	113	307	399	566	574	860	854
Ireland	582	529	470	600	630	650	705	845	965	906	854	1003	1160
Italy	29400	31700	31600	42500	38100	40775	43400	45875	44935	44895	48185	50448	51942
Netherlands	170	295	600	700	850	1075	1250	1300	1270	2350	2397	2754	4250
Norway	200	269	250	0	0	100	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Portugal	760	860	1755	2135	1851	979	2267	2260	1309	1436	2221	983	1427
Spain	13966	16254	16804	20792	20680	21194	20901	20614	21091	22089	22549	24424	27420
Sweden	954	819	1201	1777	3045	3361	3855	3382	3248	2930	2952	3110	3195
Switzerland	272	270	271	252	254	1180	1070	1230	1230	1135	1235	1161	1161
UK	12486	11775	11623	13437	14851	17260	13918	14416	15252	14132	16369	16617	16811
Total	154383	163456	173151	195123	197913	214250	225706	225818	228143	232420	241327	248075	252888

Capture fishery production from inland waters - Western Europe
Country	1984	1985	1986	1987	1988	1989	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996
Austria	700	700	640	600	600	550	550	550	500	400	400	400	1155
Belgium	0	494	498	458	474	514	511	511	511	511	511	511	511
Denmark	464	362	433	403	389	436	392	389	659	337	262	264	196
Finland	66056	66031	55221	54389	49300	48973	49371	49111	51407	51522	47895	48436	48344
France	2000	3050	3533	2772	3695	3020	3500	4000	4350	4400	4450	4500	4540
Germany	6757	7774	8351	7844	9238	7982	10731	9041	8770	10837	10810	22889	23149
Greece	7755	6516	8302	8070	7353	7350	8167	7836	9007	10776	13293	17585	16483
Iceland	410	467	546	500	643	527	676	756	886	907	698	739	608
Ireland	88	87	87	221	3103	6404	2936	2938	2991	2929	3604	3761	3806
Italy	20553	15419	17737	12703	19393	19909	13050	9523	9075	9515	9921	10035	8976
Netherlands	3856	3814	4170	4979	5151	3646	2587	3509	2318	1636	2446	4107	2157
Norway	356	388	370	432	280	476	483	541	580	435	432	413	338
Portugal	0	0	0	222	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Spain	10238	10200	10700	8595	9386	10005	8620	8937	8950	9150	9100	9489	9490
Sweden	2412	2108	2237	2010	2184	2162	2068	2135	2308	2273	2254	1943	1810
Switzerland	3841	4294	4386	4271	3973	3303	3158	3599	2715	1822	1481	1588	1841
UK	1431	1790	2097	1808	1201	2833	2666	2057	2035	1909	2191	2146	2068
Total	126917	123494	119308	110277	116363	118090	109466	105433	107062	109359	109748	128806	125472

By contrast the major cultured group in Western Europe is the salmonids with Onchorynchus mykiss as the lead species.

Species composition of aquaculture in 1996 �Western Europe
Species	Species	%
Salmonoidei	Salmonoids		82.43
Cyprinoidei	Cyprinids		8.84
Anguilla anguilla	European eel		2.92
Siluroidei	Catfishes		1.42
Astacidae	Crayfishes		0.92
Mugil cephalus	Flathead grey mullet		0.72
Esox lucius	Northern pike		0.32
Percidae	Perches		0.22
Acipenseriformes	Sturgeons		0.17
Cichlidae	Tilapias		0.14
Micropterus salmoides	Largemouth black bass		0.04
Macrobrachium rosenbergii	River prawns		0.03
Gobiidae	Gobies		0.02
Dicentrarchus labrax	European seabass		0.01
Osteichthyes	Fishes not reported by species		1.81

A greater variety of species are cultured in Western Europe with a trend to more specialist markets and to greater experimentation. In common with Eastern Europe a high proportion of the material raised through aquaculture is used for stocking into natural and artificial aquatic systems.

Major contributions to the catches in Western Europe are of varied origin, possibly due to the greater range of climate and landscapes in the sub-region. Catches by anglers, many of which are from catch-and return fisheries for cyprinids are not included in these figures.

Species composition of capture fisheries in 1996 � Western Europe
Species	Species	%
Salmonoidei	Salmonoids	17.54574726
Cyprinoidei	Cyprinids	17.35526651
Percidae	Perches	12.74786407
Esox lucius	Northern pike	9.677856414
Astacidae	Crayfishes	3.185571283
Anguilla anguilla	European eel	2.237152512
Lota lota	Burbot	1.162012242
Silurus glanis	Wels(=Som)catfish	0.010360877
Crustacea	Other crustaceans	0.009563887
Clupeidae	Clupeoids	0.005578934
Osteichthyes	Fishes not reported by species	36.06302601

Contribution of introduced fishes to

European production

Status	Western		Eastern
	Capture	Culture	Capture	Culture
Introduced	3.65	82.64	23.65	5.40
Native	96.35	17.36	76.35	94.60

Introduced species contribute a high proportion of the fish caught within the European region. The introduced Onchorynchus mykiss accounts for the major part of cultured fish in Western Europe and of the cultured salmonids in Eastern Europe. Eastern Europe remains heavily dependent on Cyprinus carpio for both capture and culture. This species is introduced over much of its present European distribution although the introductions are sufficiently ancient for the species to be considered part of the native fauna. Eastern Europe has had a long standing tendency to use Asiatic carps for culture and some of these have become established or are stocked into natural waters in support of the capture fishery.

Major introduced species in European catches

Aristichthys nobilis
Clarias gariepinus
Ctenopharyngodon idellus
Hypophthalmichthys molitrix
Ictalurus melas
Megalobrama amblycephala
Oncorhynchus mykiss
Oncorhynchus spp.
Procambarus clarkii
Salvelinus fontinalis